Fortis expands into Canada, acquires SmartPay, and augments its offering

Fortis’ expansion allows software platforms and businesses operating in the Canadian market to leverage the proprietary technology once available to only US clients. The Canadian roll-out not only supports omni-channel credit card processing, but Interac Debit acceptance, with electronic funds transfer (EFT) coming soon as a fast follower for B2B and recurring payment clients. Customers in Canada can access the full suite of Fortis’ solutions through award-winning APIs, which create a seamless integration to the customer’s existing payment software solution.

US-based fintech Fortis has gone live in Canada, acquired payments provider SmartPay and rolled out augmented funding and settlement capabilities for online marketplaces.

New funding and settlement capabilities

Fortis has also launched a Secondary Amount feature to allow integrated software partners to assess and collect platform fees when processing payments through its solutions. Secondary Amount is available in the Fortis API suite and through the company’s hosted experiences. Software partners can designate a platform or other type of fee to be assessed as part of a single transaction and deposited separately. The single authorisation and split settlement capability is critical for high-performing marketplace partners.

Company officials said their efforts will not only expand payment processing into new locations, but also improve the interaction of data between merchant and ISV, enhancing the user experience.

Acquiring SmartPay

Fortis also acquired embedded payment solution provider SmartPay, which has strong partnerships in the enterprise software and ERP ecosystems. SmartPay was founded to bring enhanced technology solutions to the small business community. The acquired company’s founders will join the Fortis leadership team as part of the acquisition. MAPP Advisors acted as advisors to SmartPay for the transaction.

The SmartPay acquisition gives Fortis access to a skilled team of integrated payments professionals and enables the company to leverage the strong relationships SmartPay built, strengthening Fortis’ ability to serve scaling client businesses in complex markets.